1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the provision of services via an information technology network, such as the internet, and to the provision of services from such a network to information devices, such as portable information devices, including personal digital assistants (“PDA”), mobile telephones or portable computers.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years there has been a substantial commercial uptake in the use of portable information devices. Mobile telephones are now ubiquitous in most technologically developed countries, and increasingly provide information processing capability beyond that associated directly with the making of telephone calls, with some mobile telephones now incorporating an electronic personal organiser. Similarly PDAs have evolved from simply being an electronic personal organiser to incorporate capabilities such as the ability to play MP3 music files. Notebook computers are now of a size which is limited only by the perceived need for the computer to have a relatively large screen (c.f. a piece of A4 paper) and a keyboard operable by touch typing. Any distinction between different types of portable information device is rapidly becoming blurred to the extent that it may not in future be appropriate to attempt to classify a particular such device using contemporary nomenclature. A common feature of many currently produced portable information devices is the provision of a short-range wireless communication port. This port may be a Bluetooth port, using electromagnetic radiation in an ISM Frequency band above 2.5 GHz, or an infra red port (operable in normal conditions over a distance of order of magnitude 10–20 metres), or in some information devices both. Standards have been set for protocols governing communications using such wireless media, meaning that, in theory, a given information device equipped with a short range wireless communication port should be able to communicate with any other such information device.
In practice however communication with or between information devices via such ports is not straightforward. Issues such as the intrinsic capability (as a result either of hardware or software) of a device, and the possibility of using encryption of data complicate matters. Therefore, in the absence of at least a degree of prior knowledge relating to the capability of an information device and/or the level of information which may be exchanged, useful communications with, or between such devices are extremely difficult to establish. As an example of the extent to which communications between users rely on prior knowledge of computing capability, consider a user with a desktop PC who wishes to communicate with another user in an information technology network. The user will typically send data, such as text, in the form of a pdf file, or a file created by word processing software such as Microsoft Word, with a reasonable expectation that the intended recipient of the data will be able to assimilate it. The aforementioned expectation has become increasingly reliably met over time as what is essentially a defacto standard basic specification for a desktop computer has become widely established.
Currently the same cannot be said to be true for information devices. Moreover, it is by no means a foregone conclusion that in future the specifications of differing information devices, offered by different manufacturers, and for predominantly different purposes, are necessarily going to converge toward a single standardised specification. Gaining an understanding of the manner in which effective and useful data exchange may take place between two such devices is typically difficult to achieve using only the devices. The process is necessarily an iterative process of trial and error: one device sends a message to the other, and the receiving device then indicates what part, if any of the message was understood/useable/relevant (as the case may be), whereupon the first device then sends a further modified message, and so on. The speed of such an iterative process is limited principally by two factors: the speed of data transmission using the wireless link between the devices, and the computing power (i.e. processing and storage capability) of the devices.